A&A The Official John Ostrander Discussion Thread

Mr. Ostrander
I found this Star Wars Legacy Youtube that you would like
Darth Krayt's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVzlSvwGPHk

Both Admiral Gar Stazi and Moff Konrad Rus are my non-jedi heroes in Star Wars Legacy Comics, thank you for making them;
also I don't understand why the Hutts are helping the Galactic Alliance Remnant?

 

Hi Mr. O.,

I have two questions about Darth Wyrlokk III?s daughter Saarai: how do you pronounce her name and will you be addressing the loss of her legacy as a hereditary Darth Wyrlokk in a future story? Darth Krayt?s presumably dead, so Darth Wyyrlok?s traditional role in the One Sith as Darth Krayt?s counselor/confidante has to change somehow. Saarai?s her father?s heir, but what will she inherit? The situation reminds me of another father-daughter pair: Marasiah Fel and her father Roan.

 

After many delays, I've finally started my complete GrimJack read-through. I'm currently up to the beginning of the Trade Wars, a little less than a quarter of the way through the book's run and at the stage where all the characters and background plotlines are beginning to come together. This is bad in that I have several research papers due in a couple weeks and yet can't put down the comic books, but good in that at least the comics're awesome.

Anyway, I'll probably make it through to the end of the book in January sometime, and then I guess it'll be on to Killer Instinct and The Manx Cat.

Keep up the great work on Legacy!

 

And now onto the Twilley issues. Good god. Because the IDW reprints didn't include letters columns or previews, the switch took me by surprise -- I knew it was coming, but I didn't realize it was coming right then! While Flint Henry's GrimJack design doesn't thrill me, nearly everything else about the art and visual storytelling do. This is the best GrimJack has looked yet.

It was also nice to see your first collaboration with Tom Mandrake and see his growth as an artist over his couple years on the book.

Anyway. More comprehensive thoughts maybe after I finish the the book and all my finals.

 

Done the Grimjack readthrough. Reading the final issue was definitely a case of conflict between not wanting to put it down and not wanting to let it end. It kept a giant grin on my face, for the most part. More comments after the next two weeks of paper writing. For now, just a couple questions:

Any chance of ever seeing any iteration of Grimjack: Outlaw in Hell or Grimjack: Blood Rite that were mentioned at the end of issue 81? Having seen Killer Instinct at the beginning of '05 and The Manx Cat at the end of '07, any chance at all of any new GrimJack anytime in '10 or '11?

Also, if we ever see any more GrimJack incarnations beyond Gaunt and Twilley and FutureJack, I've got a couple suggestions that you've probably heard before but that may put his past family drama to shame: How about GrimJack being reborn as Mara's daughter? And then down the line, being reborn by Goddess into Blacjac's body? BlacJac's DNA embodied by Gaunt's soul? GrimJac? Eh? Bet Goddess wouldn't be too happy about that. . .

Anyway, it was an awesome read. More thoughts anon.

 

Loving Legacy . Did I ever mention how much I loved the Grotesk run? Prolly not, but I did. Keep up the great work!

 

Hey Mr. Ostrander,

quick questions regarding the Jedi High Council:

1)Were the 3 current High Council members Councilors before/during the Sith-Imperial War (T'ra Saa being a covert member perhaps)?
2)Also, was Kol Grand Master of the Jedi Order?
3)Same question for T'ra Saa (as the de facto leader of the Jedi)

 

You know I haven't really read an issue of Legacy since probably issue 5. I'm sure it's good stuff, I'm just not into Star Wars as much as a I used to be. Yet I was in a barn's N Nobel today and saw the most recent trade for Legacy. I flipped through it and came to the GA issue dealing with Stazi and to my amazement a Fleet Battle. Not only a fleet battle, but a fleet battle that remained a big part of the issue. Looked quite exciting. I was very impressed with the way it was done. Reminded me of how the Fleet Battle was used in the older Star Wars comics, espeically the Dark Empire.

Yet, not 3 maybe 4 years go all I heard was, "a fleet battle couldn't be done." Clearly that has changed, but the question is why? Now I remember your reason for no Fleet Battles was(atleast at the time) was that at the time you had no plans for one. That was understandable, but you also jumped on Strads band wagon. Which was,"It's too hard to do in comic form. To hard to draw. To hard to show hundreds of ships moving on a massive scale."

When you did finally introduce a fleet battle to the Republic comic era, yall were pretty much right. I believe it was the "Dreadnaughts of Rendilli" or something to that effect. It was all over the place. No offense to Jan's art, but if you were trying to prove how hard it was to do a fleet battle than you were correct. It was hard to see what was going on, the opposing fleets were espeically small, and for some reason it seemed like yall were actually trying to show maneuver. Why try to be a war master when trying to write and draw a comic? Now here it is 5 years after that and fleet battles are done right.

But what changed in your thinking? My quick answer would be that you picked it up off John Jacksons KOTOR comics.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/File:Battle_of_Vanquo.jpg

that's a fleet battle. All that ever needed to be done, it gets the point across simply and easy. That was how Dark Empire did it. Shows the chaos of battle, the brutality, the large scale of the conflict. You get a clear idea who's winning, and that is all in the one picture. The comic itself had 4 or 5 more panels of the battle, and that was it. So my guess is that it started with the KOTOR comics, atleast in terms of finally understanding you didn't have to make it to hard on yourself, just get the point across, and people would be satisfied. I was. Now I say it started with KOTOR, because not long after Rebellion did it, and I noticed that Legacy has done it before. Yet I was so surprised today by how correctly it was done.You were able to have your character story while at the same time having a great looking battle going on. You got the large scale down, the destructiveness of it all. It was a fleet battle worthy of Star Wars.

So what's your personal answer to why the fleet battle has gotten a rebirth in Star Wars comics? Yes, I know that these stories called for one, but was there any other reason. Why did it all of sudden become easier to draw easier and easier to do? How did Strad finally find enlightenment?

All this is of course praise for finally getting a space battle done right. So Thank you.

Oh, and although I'm not a big fan as I used to be, I'm glad to see Mandalorians get some air time and at the same time done pretty well. Never thought that would happen in one of your comics. I can finally say that I got just about everything I asked for from Star Wars.

PS. Put a good word in about me with Strad. I miss him. He hasn't called in so long.

 

Hello Mr. Ostrander,
I'm from Germany and a huge Legacy-Fan. Before that I was not a big comic fan, calling just the comic adoption of the Thrawn-Trilogy my own. Other comics I was getting, or hearing about had not so well developed characters, a bad story overall or where quite predictable. But after reading (yeah actually reading the comics) up to Legacy #41 (last issue which was released here, together with the complete Tatooine story-arc) I must say that your comics are fun to read, especially because your characters tend to be Gray rather than black or white. I simply dislike it, when the only reason why there is a good guy is, that he has to stop the bad guy. When I read Vector I also became interested in KotOR and start reading this series also.

Here is my question: While Tatooine is the last major story-arc I've read, I'm getting the idea, that Luke Skywalker, also he is very persistent, might not be the person who Cade needs to talk to. This idea came to my, because I asked myself, if we might see some other characters from the past. And when reading Tatooine it came to me that maybe Anakin Solo are a better dialogue partner. It don't have to be Anakin solo, but do we may see some other of the "old" characters, beside Luke?

 

Upping thread.

 

Thank yew! My apologies to everyone for being AWOL but we've been packing for a move, moving, and then unpacking the same stuff we packed not so long ago in a state far, far away. I'll try to get caught up on the responses over the next few days (work permitting). And look at us! 100 pages! Wheeeeeee!

For those of you in the Flint, MI, area, I'll be at the Durand Fantasy Fair this Saturday. If you're local, strop by and give a hollar.

All the best

-- John

 

Okay, gang. I'm going to be trying to get caught up with the the questions asked since I was here last, starting here.

I don't know that it was the Hutts as a group that was helping the GA Remnant as individual Hutts. Still, the Empire on Coruscant is oppressive and likely to have been interfering with the Hutts -- which they never take well.

-- John

 

I pronounce it SAHR-eye. I think her hereditary role as a Wyyrlok may be moot at the moment. A lot depends on what happens in WAR.

 

Mastadge

Really glad you enjoyed reading the series and that it held up for you. As a writer, I know what I THINK I wrote but I depend on the readers to discover what I ACTUALLY wrote. A writer can only tell you what their intentions were; it's really hard to see the work clearly. Reactions such as yours helps me do that.

I don't know as we'll ever do those two series that you mentioned. The notes for them are lost somewhere so I'm not even sure what I intended. I have SOME ideas for future incarnations of the character, if we ever get to do them. The BlacJac one has occured to me. I do hope to do SOME GJ story at some point but nothing is scheduled at the moment.

All the best

-- John

 

The answer to all three is "Not ever shown in context of the story." With the Jedi Order scattered, I don't there is any current Grand Master. The others may defer to T'ra because of her long life but no one has ever referre3d to her as "Grand Master".

 

I can't really give you a reason why, DM2. It comes out of the characters that we deal with and what the situation is. While I like KotOR fine, I can't say that the inclusion of fleet battles there influenced me any. There will be fleet battles in STAR WARS LEGACY: WAR. They go in where needed for the overall story, that's all. Same with the Mandos. I had an idea for a story that would address where they were in the Legacy era and it was worth doing. Right now, in LEGACY, we h

 

For those of you who might be interested, USATODAY.com has an article about a project with which I'm involved, ONE MONTH TO LIVE from MARVEL. It's a five issue weekly miniseries, of which mine is the fourth issue, and the first issue is out this week. Article can be found here:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2010-09-01-onemonth-marvel01-ST_N.htm

 

Whoa. That is a pretty powerful article. The combination of drawing on your own personal experiences combined with the storytelling will undoubtedly make ONE MONTH TO LIVE a very, very moving comic. My own grandmother has been dealing with cancer lately, so this topic has kinda been on my mind. I haven't picked up current Marvel in forvever (other than a few Captain America's), but I will definately give this a shot.

Switching back to Legacy for a moment, I had a couple of questions:

1. Did you ever have any ideas for some backstory on Ona Antilles? I seem to recall you mentioning that she was originally going to be a Rogue. I only ask cause her scar and her family connections (former Triumvir Bail Antilles) makes her a fun and interesting character.

2. Noble deaths seem to be a recurring theme in Legacy. Kol, Gial Gahan, Jaius Yorub, Hosk Trey'lis, Tohri Challon and others are good examples of this. What is it that you think makes these kind of characters so appealing and popular within the fanbase?

3. Speaking of fleet battles, which starship design from Legacy is your favorite?

Lastly, all I can see to your comment about Legacy: WAR having alot of fleet battles is this:

It's good to see you posting on the forums again, John.

--Adm. Nick

 

Thanks, Mr. O. Will WAR also address how the Imperial Mission's role has changed, given that its credo is "Victory Without War"?

 

Mr. Ostrander, I recently loaned the Legacy TPBs from my library, and I'm up to Broken. It's very good, and after the end of Broken I can't help but wonder what Cade will do next. Good work.

 

Hey there Mr O!

Check out my SW fan film, "The Sith Kata of S'dat Qo-nim"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaPdUWkQqQo

If my character was canon, i think he'd be a Sith Marauder. hehehe 'hope you'll like it! ^_^

 

Dearest John,

I would kill people to be able to see a pre-Legacy Kol/Nat Adventure.

Love,
JM203

 

I'm reading the Republic comics for the first time, really enjoying them. Love the way that you and Haden Blackman bounce off each other every other issue or so. Absolutely love the way you portray characters like Dooku and Obi-Wan, and Quinlan is great.

I'm looking forward to Legacy, too. I'm a little skeptical about PT era Jedi appearing then (I'm sure that's not the first time people have wondered what they were doing when Luke needed them), but I've heard great things, and I think the idea of A'Sharad falling so fall is interesting.

 

For the sake of everyone around you, there are no current plans for such a story.

-- John